Calyx Wagglepatch – blogpost 1

It’s our fourth day in Skullport today. At breakfast we all come together to share our plans for the day. Enola shares that she’s going to look if she can find useful items for herself and spend the day with Kenrai. Our furry friend Smokey is looking for a peculiar stone as well to help him understand the mysteries of the world better and Valentine is going to disguise herself as someone else, she even disguised her familiar Mip as a rat instead of a raven, to try another shot at finding a soul coin. Afterwards she will also try to talk with her patron, Freek, and asked us if we have some questions we could ask Freek. As group we decided to prepare better for the so called Obstacle Course, so the first question would be if the Death Tyrant that lives there is immune to fire. We also know that the Death Tyrant hates wizards, so Valentine will also ask if it can sense right away if Enola is a wizard. Lastly Valentine suggest to ask Freek for help with the favor Farryn and I got after our deal with the Merchant. I think it’s very kind of Valentine to suggest this, even though we have no idea who Freek is and if he is a good being or perhaps even evil, but Valentine insists that Freek surely will do this for her. Lastly, Farrýn is excited, for he is almost at the end of studying the Tome of Clear Thought, figuring out the final puzzles and riddles inside the purple tome. He is going to spend the day at his Rope Trick chamber and tries to finish it.

I decided to take my next step in bonding with Ropi so I summoned him and asked him to teach me to speak his tongue; Primordial. We stroll through Skullport in search for a more natural scenery. Sadly the best we could find was the waterside close to Skull Island where some algae and mushrooms were growing, but it’s better than being around civilization all the time.

The day goes by and the party returns to the inn to have dinner together. Here we share the conclusion of the each treasure hunt, study and my language course. Farryn was very happy to conclude his study of the Tome, but after four long days of studying, you could see that the exhaustion kicked in. I hope he will recover after some good sleep, but you’ll never know what the side effects of such a magical item could be. Both Enola and Smokey didn’t find what they were looking for and even Valentine wasn’t successful, although she shared that she was being followed, before she got away. “Did you see if the person was the merchant of whom you stole the soul coin?” I asked, while I stuffed my face with some lovely mashed mushrooms. Valentine gave it a thought be she couldn’t really say she gave it a good look, she just got away as soon as possible. After a short silence, I share that I learned to say ‘hello’ in primordial, thanks to Ropi teaching me. Farryn explained that he got some tips in the Tome, that most wizards use Primordial for scribing spells and that there are translators and dictionaries available. I thank Farryn for his tip, but I feel like this time with Ropi is really good for bonding so we could even get better at working together.

Then Farryn raises his glass. “Fellow Never Evers! I think we need to profile ourself better as a party of adventurers. A though popped in my mind: what if we get a symbol to represent the Never Evers?! Since two fifth of the party speaks Infernal and 2 others speak Gnomish, I came up with a simple design with my All-Purpose-Tool. I just need to know what N and E are in Infernal.” Valentine shows him how to write it and Farryn craftfully shaped it to finish the design. “Now we just need to get this somewhere to identify ourselves as Never Ever-member.” I ponder… “What if… we get some kind of patch on our armor?” I suggest. “Ah! Excellent idea Calyx! What if we get a temporary tattoo?!” I stare blankly at Farryn. How he got from a patch to a tattoo is a mystery to me but apparently it makes sense to him. “What you think? Maybe add some magic to it as well!” I look around. The others seem okay with it. “Only if my fur doesn’t get messed up too much…” Smokey replies, but he agrees to it. So after finishing our dinner, we went to look for a tattoo shop right away.

After searching we find a tattoo shop, can’t miss. It’s full with tattoo designs, mostly of skulls, flaming weapons and other ‘common’ designs. We meet with Eldar, a plus-sized elf with Drow-like skin hues. He explains how his tattoo’s work: he can magically paint any design and in any color. And for 50gp a cantrip can be weaved into the tattoo, for 100gp a bit stronger spell. Farryn showed his design and Eldar nods: he can do it. Valentine goes first: she gets the symbol on her right chest, in which Farryn channels the Shield-spell. I am next, I asked if Eldar could get the ink color in like flaming orange. Eldar can do anything so I do the same and I get an Eldritch Blast from Valentine cast into the tattoo on my right chest. Enola her tattoo is set on the back of her hand, with my Goodberry spell weaved into it. The design to a little bush with berries next to it. Farryn wanted to go big and he got a huge tattoo on his chest, with the spell Ensnaring Strike, symbolizing Smokey’s stunning strike. And last but not least, Smokey gets a tattoo on his thight, in which Enola casts a Hellish Rebuke. We’re all very content with the tattoo’s and we try to get a deal out of it. Eldar agrees and we can pay a group deal for 400gp. We return to the inn, Farryn buys a Healer’s Kit and then we wished each other Good Night.

The next morning, Valentine seemed a bit spooked. Lanxin, the gnome of whom Valentine and Enola stole the soul coin, managed to find Valentine and put her in a sleep paralysis. He told her to pay back for the soul coin: within 3 days for 8000gp, after 5 days for 10.000gp and there will be a bounty put on our head. We took a lot of time to discuss how to solve this problem. Lanxin is a member of the Zhentarim Guild it seems, a group of people who wants to grow in power and I, for one, do not want to have to do anything with though shady rogues. After bringing up some ideas and having some misunderstandings and clearing those up, we decide to confron Lanxin and just pay for the soul coin. That was the best way to get out of it clean and most importantly, without any troubles.

After spending some time searching for Lanxin, we stumble upon a lounge bar where the Zhantarim member was spotted. Outside we think of a plan. I would go sit in a corner across the room, incognito, practicing Primordial with Ropi. Farryn, riding on Grond, would join Valentine as she confronts the Deep Gnome, trying to get on good standing for their common Gnomish background.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here. Are you here to pay your debt?” I hear Lanxin say.

“Yes, I want to pay the original price for it, 5000 gold pieces.” While practicing with Ropi, I keep an eye out and try to follow the conversation that Valentine, Farryn and Lanxin have.

“I don’t think you understand the position you are in, girl.” The Deep Gnome replies. “The price has raised because finding you costs me a lot of money. 8000 gold pieces, nothing less.”

Farryn steps forward and starts conversing in Gnomish.

“Pardon for not introducing myself, my name is Farryn Flamèl, I’m with this person.”

The Deep Gnome does not even acknowledge our fellow Gnome member and continues the conversation with Valentine.

“So… are you gonna pay your end of the deal? Now you know the price I offered before wasn’t that high, it was a fair price… but then you had to steal it from me. Now I had to pay people to find you and spend time on that, missing other opportunities to deal and sell my wares. That’s why the price went up that high.”

Farryn tries to interrupt again. “But can’t we do something in return for you? I noticed the Zhentarim Guild is more present these days around Skullport. Isn’t there a way we can be more supportive of each other?”

Lanxin looks at Farryn. “We don’t deal with non-Zhentarim members and you lot don’t seem to be up to join our guild.” He turns to Valentine again. “Or are you?”

Both shake their head.

“So you just pay me our debt and you are free to go…”

Valentine is about to pay but then she starts talking again.

“But you said I had three days to pay, so…. Can’t I just get a little discount or something? I mean, after we paid you can focus on your regular dealings.”

Lanxin stares at Valentine and smiles a bit.

“You have a fair point. Fine, I’m in a good mood today. I’ll accept a payment of 7000 gold pieces.”

Farryn and Valentine seem to discuss it together and Farryn takes some money from his magical bag.

Lanxin smiles and accepts the payment.

“Glad we could handle this the proper way, could have been a lot more messy.”

“Now we have solved this…” Valentine starts. “… do you possibly have another soul coin? One with an evil soul stored insided?”

Lanxin looks at Valentine with a serious expression. 

“I don’t understand? Didn’t you just steal a soul coin from me? Why don’t you use that one?”

“We learned it was a good soul, so we freed it. It was the only thing we could do. So do you have one that contains an evil soul?” Valentine sounds 

“What a waste of a precious item… but sure, if you can pay what I ask next time, give me a few days so I can find one for you.” Lanxin nods. “Is that all? Be gone then now, so I can use my time to make money.”

The two leave the lounge, but I decide to stay so it won’t be too obvious that I belong with them.

Now the debt is paid and we hopefully won’t have any problems with the Zhentarim, we decide that it’s time to descend back deeper into Undermountain. We decide to check up on Wyllowwood. Farryn knows a way through the Steamfall Pass and then a portal to the 5^th level where this enchanted forest is said to be. I’m stunned by the sheer beauty of this magical forest under the ground. The party checks a bit around a certain ‘trone room’ where I sit on the throne and feel connected with the whole forest. I spot some useful mushrooms that I could use for my potion brewing. After a walk through some ruins we arrive at a strange platform. I notice some broken artificer equipment.

“Hey Farryn, isn’t this a piece of your old homunculus, Takwin?” I ask, while I point at a piece what seemed to be the head propeller of the little guy.

“Ah, nothing escapes your eyes Calyx. It was indeed. At this place I was inspired to do better and got ideas and designs for Grond. Especially after we had to burry our two friends here.” Farryn stops at a spot that’s filled with gold. From what I can see it used to be a gold hoard, but now it’s more melted together into a tomb. As we are paying respect to the lost members, Farryn collects some loose gold coins.

After a little trip through memory lane, it’s time to hurry along and continue our dungeon delving experience. We have to get to the Obstacle Course. Luckily we know of a shortcut, so first we enter a portal with dancing dwarves etched in the arch above it, bringing us to an ancient dwarf level, from where we could take another portal to Zox’s hide-out. Zox welcomes us and is happy that we’re back on track. He offers us a drink and tells us his Simulacrux project is going splendid. He also caught wind of visitors for Arcturia: Two blue dragons. I almost choke myself on a little sip of tea. I suppose those were the Dragon’s that we met before the whole ‘reset’. They are guest of Arcturia it seems, so better not disturb them. We thank Zox for this information and continue our path down, where we at last face the gates of Arcturia’s level again. We stop for a while. What will we do? How will we get past the dragons and fire giants? And what will we try to do to get through the door to the Obstacle Course?